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Thread: Engineer Guide MkIII

  1. #1

    Engineer Guide MkIII


    As you probably noticed Highorbit is not playing the game for two years now, and he does not even answer PMs. As some things have changed, and this guide needs an update, I took the liberty of copy pasting his original guide, as a template for a new, updated one. Please let me post the entire guide, and then you can start with some suggestions on where it should be improved. I do not have unlimited time, so it might take a while to update the whole thing.


    Last Major Change: 10th June 2007

    This guide is heavily based on Highorbit's Engineer Guide MkII.

    This guide is intended to draw together as much information as I could to provide an easy to understand guide for Engineers of any level.

    Thanks in advance to anyone who has responded with suggestions or additions, and especially to Alternity for help with the PvP section


    Introduction

    So you started an Engineer? First of all let me welcome you to the profession and to our forum, don't be afraid to ask questions here no matter how silly they may seem.

    I'd like to say right at the beginning that this guide isn't only aimed at new players, I've tried to add in as much information, or links to information that should hopefully be able to satisfy a large number of commonly asked questions on these forums.

    Much more information is available in the Useful Reference Threads.

    What this guide doesn't do

    Provide you with a step by step list of things to do to make your character uber.

    Other important resources

    Anarchy Online Manual - The Offical game manual
    Dictionary - Having trouble with the language?
    New Arrival Forum - a Good place to get quick answers to your questions.

    Contents

    1. Choosing a Breed
    2. Starting to Play
    3. Controlling Your Pets
    - 3.1. Pet Commands
    - 3.2. Macros
    - 3.3. Maximum Range
    - 3.4. Pet Runspeed
    4. Affording your Engineer
    - 4.1. Begging
    - 4.2. Soloing Missions
    - 4.3. Blitzing Missions
    - 4.4. Mission Locations
    - 4.5. Jewelery
    - 4.6. Monster Parts
    5. Skills
    - 5.1. Essential Skills
    - 5.2. Secondary Skills
    - 5.3. Perks
    - 5.4. Resetting Skills
    - 5.5. Buffs
    - - 5.5.1. General Buffs
    - - 5.5.2. Engineer Buffs
    - - 5.5.3. Where to get the Nanos
    - - 5.5.4. Meta-Physicist Buffs
    - - 5.5.5. Trader Buffs
    - 5.6. Items
    - 5.7. Bots, Buffs and Over-Equipping (OE)
    - - 5.7.1. What are Over-Equipping Rules?
    - - 5.7.2. "What has that got to do with me?"
    - - 5.7.3. Doing the Maths
    - - 5.7.4. "There must be an easier way?!"
    6. Armour Choices
    - 6.1 Beginner Armor
    - 6.2 Intermediate Armor
    - 6.3 Endgame Armor
    7. Weapon Choices
    - 7.1. Beginner Weapons
    - 7.2. Intermediate Weapons
    - 7.3. Endgame Weapons
    8. Trimmers & Android NCU Upgrades
    - 8.1. Permanent Effect Trimmers
    - - 8.1.1. Attack Speed Trimmer
    - - 8.1.2. Taunting Trimmer
    - 8.2. Temporary Effect Trimmers
    - - 8.2.1. Tradeoff Trimmers
    - - 8.2.2. Damage Type Trimmers
    - - 8.2.3. Improve Actuators Trimmer
    - 8.3. NCU Upgrades
    9. Implants
    - 9.1. Profession Specific Pre-made Implants
    - 9.2. Implant Design
    - 9.3. Common Issues
    - 9.4. Sample Implant Design
    10. Soloing & Teaming
    - 10.1. Terms & Concepts
    - 10.2. Pets in Combat
    - 10.3. Solo Play
    - 10.4. Team Play
    - 10.5. Offensive and Defensive Auras
    - - 10.5.1. Damage Shield Debuff
    - - 10.5.2. Reflect Shield Debuff
    - - 10.5.3. Blind (Add All Off Debuff)
    11. Trade Skills
    - 11.1. Introduction to Trade Skills
    - 11.2. Trade Skill Processes
    - 11.3. Charging for Trade Skills
    - 11.4. Special Tools
    - 11.5. Maximum Skills for each Breed
    - 11.6. Tutoring and Why It's Important
    - 11.7. Where to find out more
    12. Player Vs Player
    - 12.1. Skills
    - 12.2. Weapon Choices
    - 12.3. Armor Choices
    - 12.4. Equipment
    - 12.5. Nanos
    - 12.6. Perks
    - 12.7. Tactics
    - - 12.7.1. Rooting
    - - 12.7.2. Fighting Against Charms/Calms/Roots
    - - 12.7.3. Battleship Point Capture
    13. Anything Else
    - 13.1. Making References & Tracking Damage

    1. Choosing a Breed

    This thread covers Breed choice.

    2. Starting to Play

    When you first start any profession on Rubi-Ka you are given a small number of items to start you off.

    For an Engineer these are:

    The most important thing you'll have here is your very first Robot Shell. As well as some health kits, first aid kits and if you're Omni or Clan a blank token board.

    You may need to raise some of your skills to upload these nano crystals and activate the bot. So press the "U" key. You'll find the skills you need under "Nano & Aiding".

    You can see a description of any item or player by holding down shift and left clicking on it. The description contains all the information about the skills you need to wear or use the item.

    If you need to remake your robot you can do so by right clicking on the Nano Progam under the Space section. This makes a bot shell in your inventory again. Bots cost credits though, so make sure you kill a few creatures before losing your first pet.

    This bot will last you until you terminate it, it dies, or you log off. If you lose your connection the bot will wait for 2 minutes for you to reconnect before powering down.

    3. Controlling Your Pets

    3.1. Pet Commands

    Pets are controlled through the command line (i.e. hit enter, type in the command). But don't panic there are ways to make this much easier, which we will go over later.

    The "mode" commands will change the way the pets behave until you give the pets a new mode command. These are:
    • /pet guard - the pet will follow the owner and attack any target that attacks the owner. This is the default mode.
    • /pet hunt - the pet will patrol and attack any target it finds. If more than one target is found it will attack the one closest.
    • /pet follow - the pet will follow the owner.
    • /pet behind - the pet will follow the owner. The difference between this and follow isn't clear.
    • /pet wait - the pet will stop and do nothing. Also sets the mode to /follow.

    Other commands are:
    • /pet attack - the pet will attack the selected target, and subsequent targets that attack the pets. Afterwards, the pet will return to the owner and to the previous mode.
    • /pet terminate - the pet terminates and disappears.
    • /pet report - the pet reports its health, nano, ncu and location.
    • /pet rename "New Name" - renames the pet. The name must be at least 4 characters long. If you'd like a colourful name check here.
    • /pet chat "Chat text" - the pet says the text.


    Since our pet can't heal the /pet heal command is useless to us. The command /pet emote also doesn't work on our pets.

    From level 100 you can also have a pet dog. From then on, if you issue a command, other than /pet rename, it is issued to both pets. To issue a command to one pet use /pet "petname" command.

    You can also issue these commands from two other places. The first is the pet window. Type "/open pet" to open this window, and you can see some of the commands are available as buttons. The second is macros, which we will go into now.

    3.2. Macros

    The command /macro macroname macro text creates a little icon for your to place on your shortcut bar (press "Y" if you can't see that). Which then allows you to perform the command just by pressing a number from 1 - 0 depending on it's position on the bar.

    You can either have the game help you with this or do them yourself. If you want the game to help you simply type in /help pet and click on each of the links to create the macro. Otherwise, just type /macro Attack /pet attack etc.

    3.3. Maximum Range

    Your pet will only obey your commant up to a maximum range - 50 metres. If your pet is further away than that, for example since you issued a /pet wait command and moved away, and you issue a command, you will get the message "Pet is too far away. It can't hear your command." and the pet will do nothing.
    Your pet will also stop fighting if you are further from it than 50 metres. You will first get a warning "Your pet is out of range, if you dont get closer to the pet it will abort the fight and return to you." You are then given 5 second to close the distance to your pet. If you close the distance, you will get the message "You are within your pets range again." and your pet will continue fighting. Otherwise, you will get the message "Your pet is out of range, its aborting fight to return to you." and your pet will come back running to you.

    3.4. Pet Runspeed

    The runspeed of your pets is set to be your own runspeed, so your pet can follow you arround. The runspeed is set when the shell is activated, and sometimes when you zone. One should therefore make sure to buff runspeed before activating the shells, and if this is not possible, make sure to do a hard zone. When in /follow mode, and when certain pathing conditions kick in pet runspeed is increased by 15% in order to allow the pet to catch up.
    Last edited by Technogen; Jan 5th, 2010 at 04:36:40.
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  2. #2
    4. Affording your Engineer

    Getting enough credits to fund your character is pretty hard to start off with, this is the same for all professions, but I think more so on those that depend on their nanos.

    If you find you don't have enough credits to afford the next bot up, then slow down! Take a little while to gather those credits up and relax a little. Levelling is not the most essential part of the game, having fun is.

    "It's not the end of the journey that matters, it's the path you take to get there"

    Before you go any further it's always worth checking out the thread on the New Arrival forum:

    Making LOTS of money as a new player

    Now you've done that we'll take a closer look at some things that can help you make a few credits.

    4.1. Begging

    Don't do it. Too much of this happens already and this may well get you ignored by a large quantity of the higher level population. There are other ways, they may take longer but you won't annoy anyone in the process.

    4.2. Soloing Missions

    Before we begin looking at missions as a way of making credits make sure you get Clicksaver.

    Get a Lockpick, nothing worse than being stopped by a locked door, or unable to steal a poor mobs precious belongings because they were inconsiderate enough to have locked it away.

    Also make sure that you get yourself a few backpacks to put all the items you loot in. Then it's simply a case of kill and loot everything you can, after all there's no team there with you.

    In the next couple of sections I'll include a mission settings for you to try out. The settings below gives you a high chance of human mobs. The choice is then between XP and Money as the reward.

    We use the Good / Bad setting in this case just to get missions that are nicer to do. That is avoiding assasination missions and observing missions, as well as return item mission since we want the most stuff for ourselves!

    Mission Setting: Bad, Money, Order
    Mission Setting: Good, XP, Order


    Soloing missions is an excellent (if time consuming) way of getting items and credits for yourself, and it's well worth learning to do.

    Soloing team missions is even better than solo missions if you can. Of course to do this you at least temporarily needs a team mate.

    4.3. Blitzing Missions

    Mission Setting: Bad, Money, Order

    Blitzing is a process of running, or calming (if you're an NT, Trader or Crat) through a mission purely for the reward, that means you don't kill anything. Runspeed is probably the most important skills for doing this.

    The chance of recieving an xp reward is directly related to the percentage of mobs killed in a mission, we don't want an XP reward since we're not going to kill any mobs.

    Always save (use Insurance Terminal) before you attempt a blitz, this way if you die during a blitz you have lost nothing except for the couple of minutes it takes to recover.

    4.4. Mission Location

    Location is important, the further away from the mission terminal the mission is the more credits you'll get as a reward. This doesn't mean we have to run into the middle of nowhere to get a couple of hundred more credits though. Check out getting missions from other cities or towns and see how easy they are to get to.

    4.5. Jewelery

    If you find yourself looting a lot of ingots, gems, rings then we can make these more valuable by turning them into jewelery. Check out this guide for what you need and how to do it. Then you can turn what are normally junk items into rings, which will get you more credits from the shops.

    To make Jewelery you'll need quite a lot of Agility and Mechanical Engineering.

    4.6. Monster Parts

    With the use of a Bio-Comminutor (found in the Trade section of any general store) Monster Parts can be converted to Blood Plasma. These sell for substantially more than the monster parts to shops. This can be a nice way to make a bit of quick cash.

    Converting Monster Parts to Blood Plasma will need a bit of Pharma Tech.

    Check out the trade skill section later on to see what others you might want to do.

    5. Skills

    5.1. Essential Skills

    This section covers the skills that are essential or useful to you as you progress as an engineer.

    All skills are effected by something called "trickle down" from the abilities, this means a small increase in that skill based on the ability. As well as this skills can only be raised a certain amount before the ability needs to be raised as well.

    The most important skills for us are those that make our bots, without those we're not much good.

    So at every step the following three are essential for us:

    Intelligence - Effects all nano skills, most trade skills
    Matter Creation - Bot Creation
    Time and Space - Bot Creation
    Computer Literacy - NCU, Belts & Grid
    Matter Metamorphesis - Shields
    Treatment - Med kits, nano kits, implants
    Body Development - This increases your Hit points
    Nano Pool - Increases your Nano points

    5.2. Secondary Skills

    Any other abilities you raise depend on your Breed choice. As Solitus I always suggest you raise Agility and Stamina (in addition to Intelligence).

    There are two reasons for that, the first is that those two abilities also effect "Matter Creation" and "Time and Space". The second reason is that it's very easy to make implants that depend on those skills.

    Some of the other skills you might be interested in are below (Any weapon skills are covered in the next section):

    Run Speed - Self explanetory
    Biological Metamorphesis - The bot heals are listed here. All Bot heals are mission reward only, except for Master's Repairs, which is a reward from this quest.
    Psychological Modification and Sensory Improvement - Raise to at least 66
    Map Navigation - Optional, but if you raise to 80 you can have the important map upgrades (people & monsters) quickly. Otherwise use temporary implants to increase and upload maps as you level.

    5.3. Perks

    Provided you have the Shadowlands expansion pack you will have access to Perks.

    You'll recieve a perk once every 10 levels up to level 200, and one perk for each level over level 200 giving you a total of 20 perks at level 200 and 40 at level 220.

    To access the Perk menu press Shift and P.

    You can a Perk configuration tool to help you decide which you'd like here thanks to Aune.

    There are no definate answers to which perks to choose, that is down to how you want to play your character and what you'd like to do.

    Remember that Perks are cumulative, and the benefits of each level and each perk stack.

    A couple to pay close attention to are the two below that increase our "Matter Creation" and "Time and Space" skills.

    These are all the available levels of the Gadgeteer Perk.

    These are all the available levels of the Mechanic Perk.

    It's well worth considering Bio Shielding. This provides you with some healing capabilities as well as an Absorb Shield that gets bigger the more points you put into Bio Shielding up to a maximum of 10000 at level 201.

    Don't panic if you make a mistake with Perks, while it can take time it's not impossible to correct a problem. You are allowed to reset one perk point every 2 hours, and reset all your perks instantly by speaking to an appropriately-named NPC on Jobe Platform.

    5.4. Resetting Skills

    It is possible to reset skills if you need to. Every character has access to a fixed amount of IP Reset (IPR) Points upon creation, and you'll get a few more every time you hit a title change, except at level 205. That is, you get reset points at levels: 15, 50, 100, 150, and 190. On top of that you can buy IPR points for a large sum of credits or for a large number of Victory Points (VPs).

    Each point allows you to reset a single skill, and returns all of the IP you have spent in that skill allowing you to spend it elsewhere.

    There is also a single "Full IPR" point that you get upon creation of the character. This can be used to completely reset all the IP spent in all skills. You cannot purchase Full IPR points.

    To do either a skill IPR or a full IPR, you have to remove all weapons, equipment, armor and implants.

    Basic abillities, and the Map Navigation skill cannot be reset.

    5.5. Buffs

    5.5.1. General Buffs

    The first buffs you should look at getting in the game are the "Proficiency" nanos. You can find a list of Proficiency nanos here. It's highly advisable to get these as soon as you can.

    After these you should look at getting the appropriate "Expertise" nanos. You can find a list of Expertise nanos here. Again it is advisable to get these as soon as you can. They overwrite the Proficiency nanos, so you cannot use both at once on the same skill.

    A few other general nanos to get as an Engineer are Regeneration which increases the rate your bot will heal, Healing which you can use to heal your bot a small amount and Pet Warp which warps your pet to you, useful if it ever gets stuck or lost.

    5.5.2. Engineer Buffs

    You can find a list of all Engineer nanos here.

    Each of these Knowledge Nanos adds 80 to trade skills as listed.

    Each of these Mastery Nanos adds 125 to trade skills as listed. This buff overwrites the 80 buff, so you cannot have both running.

    One particular line to pay close attention to is our attack rating buffs for the bot. These are very good for increasing the amount of damage your bot does.
    Last edited by -Stage-; Dec 30th, 2010 at 14:24:32. Reason: Updated dead aomainframe links to AUNO links, couple other updates
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  3. #3
    5.5.3. Where to get the Nanos

    As with all professions, most nanos with no SL requirement can be found in shops up to QL 125 and as mission reward at any QL. The ones with SL req can be found in the SL gardens and sanctuaries.
    Clicksaver is a helpful program in getting the mission reward you desire. Please note that Funcom do not support Clicksaver in any way.

    The exceptions for these are listed below:


    5.5.4. Meta Physicist Buffs
    Each of these buff series has versions that add to specific nano skills, and a level locked Composite version that adds to all nanoskills.

    5.5.5. Trader Buffs

    None of the trader tradeskill buffs stacks with each other, or with our own tradeskill buffs. However, unlike our buffs, they have no level limit, so you can get them even at very low levels.

    5.6. Items

    These are details of some items that add to "Matter Creation" and "Time and Space" which we can use to help us summon our bots.

    Thanks to Martinn for the majority of this list

    5.7. Bots, Buffs and Over-equipping (OE)

    This applies to weapons as well, but my primary concern here is to explain how it applies to our pets.

    5.7.1. What are Over-Equipping Rules?

    These rules were introduced several patches ago in an attempt to combat the growing number of characters using items and pets substantially over their skill levels.

    For weapons and armour it reduces the effectiveness in increments of 25%.

    OE does not apply to NCU memory, Belts, Implants, HUD items or Util items.

    For pets it simply makes them stop responding entirely and they enter Behind mode (will follow you around but not respond to other commands).

    5.7.2. "What has that got to do with me?"

    In effect this gives us two things to consider whenever we make a bot or put on a piece of armour. The first being how we get all that extra skill in the first place, the second is how much do we have to maintain in order to continue using it.

    Lets use the Slayerdroid Guardian as an example. This requires 874 "Matter Creation" and "Time and Space" to cast and activate the shell.

    Now before the OE rules were introduced that meant you could get Mochams and a 132 Wrangle and make that bot at a very early level and continue using it until you logged off even if those buffs ran out.

    What OE rules changed was that you need to be able to maintain 700 MC and TS to continually use the bot.

    With a weapon instead of a pet the weapon would become 75% effective at the first OE level. If your skills were even lower, then the gun would drop to 50% effective.

    5.7.3. Doing the Maths

    You can figure out exactly how much skill you need to use something, or the highest you can possibly use without being effected with these two little formulea.

    Amount of Skill Required to Control = Amount of skill to make or wear * 0.8 (Round up result to the nearest whole number)

    Maximum amount within OE = Current Skill * 1.25 (Round down result to the nearest whole number)

    5.7.4. "There must be an easier way?!"

    Fortunately for us there is, a player made bot known as Helpbot can help you out with what you can and can't use.

    Simply send helpbot a tell and ask him:

    /tell helpbot OE <skill>

    Enter your skill and he'll show you the result of both of the formula I have above.

    6. Armor Choices

    In general armor is used for two purposes - improving your AC and getting other modifiers. As Engineers rarely stand in the front, and we have our own AC buffs, AC is less important to us. We therefore focus on what other abilities an armor set can give us.

    6.1 Beginner Armor

    • Omni-Med Suit - At very early levels. From omni shops, cheap. Modifies treatment and first aid, for better treatment labs and stims.
    • Carbonum Plate Armor (QL Range: 1 - 200) carb armor - Arguably one of the best beginner armors. Easy to get (guide here). Can then be upgraded to the Storm version (for clan) or Omni version (for omni) (guide here). Agility/Stamina reqs which some breeds find hard, but still a good choice, even if at a slightly lower QL.
    • Low QL Saboteur's Armor (QL Range: 25 - 100) - Adds Time & Space and health. Drops from Mortiigs in Elysium. QL25 gloves from Nascence Start-up Quests. Note it's Unique.
    • CAS Symbiotic Armor (QL Range: 35 - 200) - for Atrox mainly due to Stamina/Strength reqs and good looks on Atrox. Expensive (guide here).
    • Low QL Control Unit Vest and Sleeves (QL Range: 75 - 300) - Adds MC/TS. Drops from sided mobs of all levels. Quite cheap.
    • Low QL Exterminator Unit Crepuscule Armor (QL Range: 50-300) - adds to nanoskills. Guide here. Pants, Sleeves and Skinchip give TS; Gloves, chip, boots and jacket are MC.

    Other armor choices, contributing to AC only:
    Atrox: Stamina & Strength Armour
    • Organic Armor (QL Range: 35 - 200) - Mission Reward / Loot. Good AC, looks bad.
    • Graft Armor (QL Range: ?? - 200) - Mission Reward / Loot. Good AC, looks bad.

    Nanomage: Intelligence & Psychic Armour
    • Nano Armor (QL Range: 75 - 200) - Mission Reward / Loot. Easy to get.
    • Cyber Armor (QL Range: 30 - 200) - Mission Reward / Loot. Harder to get than Nano.

    Opifex: Sense & Agility Armour
    Last edited by -Stage-; Dec 30th, 2010 at 16:24:37. Reason: Updated dead aomainframe links to auno.org links, couple other updates

  4. #4
    6.2 Intermediate Armor

    The right time to switch into your intermediate armor is when you have the requirements to equip it. When this happends depends on your breed on on the armor choice.

    The Intermediate armor choices are made of armor sets, where usually each item adds to some specific abilities. You can mix and match to add to the abilities you find most useful.

    • First Tier Engineer Armor (nicknamed T1 Armor): Reqs start at 365 Intelligence & 300 Psychic. Requires quite an ellaborate process to make (guide here), and has moderate modifiers. This is mostly a good choice if you are going to use the Third Tier armor (see Endgame Armors). The Second Tier armor can mostly be skipped.
    • Apocalypse/Omni-Tek Steel-ribbed Armor: Reqs 550 Sense & Agility for ql200 so best for opifexes. Adds to inits and evades. Guides here and here.
    • Shapeshifter's Vest - nice inits/evades. From Cerubin in the Crypt of Home (guide here).
    • Carlos' Danger Boots/Allyssas' Ballistic Boots: Requires TL5. Good health and weapon modifiers. Drops from the Omega/Empath in the Penumbra Unredeemed/Redeemed temple. Also viable as endgame armor.
    • Superior Sentinel Armor/Omni-Armed Forces Armor: Requires 550 Strength+Agility/Strength+Stamina, as well as TL6. Quest reward, (guide for clan/omni)
    • Azure armor: Requires 605 Stamina, and can be used from level 175. Can be found at the Mercenaries Camp (guide here). All the parts add to your health.
    • Merlin Armor: Requires 750 Intelligence & Psychic, so a good choice for nanomages. Drops from dragon bosses in Inferno.


    6.3 Endgame Armor

    Tier 3 Armor
    Depending on your side that will be either Faithful Engineer Armor for clans or Chosen Engineer Armor for omni. For most armor parts you need to make Tier 2 armor first (guide here and then upgrade it to Tier 3 (guide here. However, note specifically that the back armor, the helmet, and the shoulderpads behave a little differently, so read the instructions for those carefully. Of specific interest are the back item, which adds a nice chunk of health, the gloves which add Pistol and the chest which adds grenade. Almost all parts add to tradeskills.

    Molybdenum Armor
    Depending on your side that will be either Jathos' for clan or Kegern's for omni. Neutrals can use both. Drops from the biodomes (guide here). Has good HP bonus, mainly Vest is used by PvPers.

    Alien Armor
    Aien armor is the top armor set in the game. In general there are 6 armor types:
    • Arithmetic - adds to tradeskills and nanoskills.
    • Enduring - adds to Health and Body Dev.
    • Observant - adds to inits, evades, and spying abilities.
    • Spiritual - adds to nano pool, Max nano and Nano cost.
    • Strong - adds to Melee weapons, MA, Defense and damage.
    • Supple - adds to Ranged weapons and offense.


    You can also combine these armor to make Combines armors:


    A good guide on how to make these armors can be found here.

    You can basically choose any armor type you wish. However, some options are more popular.
    Arithmetic armor is usually used for enhancing your nanoskills while casting your bots and for tradeskilling. As such, it has little use during combat, and is preferably swapped for a better armor after being used. However, not everyone can afford a second set for combat so CS is a common option for the evades it gives. CO is mainly used a cheaper alternative as it has better AC than arith, though the extra modifiers aren't that useful at the endgame.
    As most engineers use ranged weapons, CSS and CC are much better combat options. CC is for the more DD oriented, while CSS provides more survivability.
    MA engineers will find Strong armor, and especially CC or CM ideal. CS gives more AR, which for MA engineers is very important, while CM adds HP.

    Penultimate Ofab Engineer armor
    New with LE, Penultimate Ofab Engineer armor is an improved version of Tier 3 armor, available to all sides. You buy it in the tower shop for Victory Points, which you get by either killing aliens in the mothership or joining PvP in the battlestations. You then need to upgrade it twice with Kyr'Ozch Bio-Material - Type 64 (any ql), found on the boss in the mothership. Of specific interest are the gloves which add Pistol and the chest which adds grenade. Other parts add to tradeskills and basic abilities.

    Other


    7. Weapon Choices

    In general, weapons can be used for several purposes. First and foremost, weapons are used for direct fighting, by dealing damage. However, weapons can also be used to enhance your combat in other ways, such as providing you with better abilities. We will consider both of these options as "fighting weapons". Finally, weapons can also be used for "twinking", i.e. you can use a weapon to temporarily give you the ability to equip some other item, and then you change back to your fighting weapons. In this section we will deal with fighting weapons only.
    This section will also ignore PvP weapons - these will be discussed in the PvP section.
    Some of the information in this section is taken from Silverado's DD Guide.
    The main engi weapon choices are Pistol and Grenade. There is also some experimentation with Ranged Energy and Martial Arts, but as this is a mainstream guide, we will not discuss them.

    7.1 Beginner Weapons

    In general, your first priority in the early levels is to launch and control as big a bot as possible, so your weapon of choice is the one that will help you achieve this goal. This is true at least until you can launch the best RK bot. Some people even do this until they can "self" the best RK bot, meaning they can launch it without outside buffs.
    As pistols are the easiest to equip, pistol being a green skill, and they happen to have the best mods, they are the best beginner weapons.

    Weapons that help in launching a better bot:


    Another option is to use a MTI-B94. This weapon adds to your experience modifier, which means you will level faster.

    If you really must use a weapon for effect, you have a choice of several low level pistol and grenade weapons.
    Beginner Pistol Weapons:

    Beginner Grenade Weapons:


    7.2 Intermediate Weapons

    When you move to the intermediate weapons, it is time to decide what weapon type you are going to use. Most intermediate weapons tend to be Pistols.

    Intermediate Pistol Weapons:
    • Customized IMI Desert Reet 1000 (CDR) - High min damage and low high damage make it best for SL mobs. Fast burst/fling recharges and no MBS. Drops from either the Lab Director in the Biomare Dungeon (guide here) or the Notum Soldier (Spawned by PH. Coords: 2000x2400, Eastern Fouls Plains). This works especially well with Solar-Powered Mechanic Pistol, an upgraded version of the Solar Powered Pistol mentioned above, since they both do Fire damage.
    • Flux Pistol - Slow but with exceptional low damage, making it good for SL mobs. Drops off SL sided mobs.
    • Upgraded Solar Powered Pistol - see above. Especially good for RK mobs.
    • Pain of Patricia - Mainly for RK mobs. Drops from Patrica Johnson at ace camp (guide here).

    Intermedate Grenade Weapons:
    Last edited by -Stage-; Dec 30th, 2010 at 15:02:29. Reason: Fixed more dead links

  5. #5
    7.3 Endgame Weapons

    When you arrive at the endgame you will probably know exactly what weapons style you want. Pistol setups tend to do the most damage, while Grenade costs less IP.

    Engame Pistol Weapons:
    • Turnspirit Pistols: Maker/Creator for clan, Ingenious/Innovatory for omni. Very high max damage make this good for RK mobs/aliens, but no specials and low min damage. Clan version is made from Sacrosanct Pistol + Turn Spirit of Bacam-Xum, omni version made from Inamorata Pistol + Turn Spirit of Aam. The weapons drop off sided mobs, the turn spirits can be bought from Yutto Manuals in form of Turnspirit Flesh Pouches and they drop from the heck bosses in inferno (near incarnator).
    • Kyr'Ozch Pistol - Type 1 and Type 4: Type 1 does fling and type 4 does burst. The very high MR requirement means you will not get the same ql on both hands. Until your burst is around 1300 it is best to have a higher type 1. Found from aliens, type 1/4 upgrades found on Generals/Admirals of city aliens.
    • Ofab Peregrine Mk 6: Currently the best pistol weapon. You buy it in the tower shop for Victory Points, which you get by either killing aliens in the mothership or joining PvP in the battlestations. You then need to upgrade it five times with Kyr'Ozch Bio-Material - Type 812 (any ql), found on the boss in the mothership. Can be dualed, even at ql300.

    Engame Grenade Weapons:


    8. Trimmers & Android NCU Upgrades

    This section covers the items you can use on your robot to enhance it's performance. Trimmers can be used as many times as you need and won't disapear on use. NCU Upgrades are single use only.

    8.1. Permanent Effect Trimmers

    When used these trimmers have a permenent effect on the robot, so you only need to use them once per bot. Note however, that it is not 100% agread that the effect lasts when you zone, so you might need to redo them every time you zone.

    8.1.1. Agg/Def Trimmer
    Trimmer - Positive Aggressive-Defensive/Trimmer - Negative Aggressive-Defensive.

    This line of trimmers can be bought from the Devices terminal in general stores. The maximum Quality is 100 which represents either full defense or full offense.
    Basically, they alter the position of your pets Aggressive-Defensive slider. The effect is much the same as altering your own, at full offense the bot hits faster but has less effective evades so gets hit more.
    The majority of our bots are more than capable of taking a little punishment though so we tend to favour the Positive Trimmers over the Negative ones.

    8.1.2. Taunting Trimmer
    This trimmer is made using components that can be easily bought in the shops. The Quality ranges from 30 to 200 and will require Mech Eng and a small amount of Chemistry to build.
    The components needed are:

    Which will give you:

    This trimmer adds a relatively small taunt value to your pets hits. In effect each hit making the mob more angry at the robot. Used in conjunction with Trimmer - Positive Aggressive-Defensive this can make the pet very good at holding the mobs attention.

    8.2. Temporary Effect Trimmers

    These trimmers last only for a timed duration. They all lock some skills to make sure they cannot be used too often.

    8.2.1. Tradeoff Trimmers

    These can be used once every 5 minutes, and the effect lasts for 5 minutes. They increase one ability of the robot at the cost of another. They also give a minor skill increase to the skill they lock (3 for ql200).
    They can be found at the Devices terminal in general shops, and can also be rolled as mission reward.


    8.2.2. Damage Type Trimmers

    These trimmers change the damage type your robot does for 10 minutes. They decrease the hitpoints of the robot by a significant amount. They lock Mechanical Engineering for 60 minutes, so they can only be used once every hour. All in all, most engineers don't find them very usefull.
    They are made by combining an energy core of the appropriate type, with Trimmer Casing. Energy cores are found on minibosses in alien ships, or in apf. Trimmer Casing is from Mechanical Engineering Components.


    Note that these trimmers appear to be bugged, and they cause the bot to appear to have zero HP and stop moving. Zoning solves the problem.

    8.2.3. Improve Actuators Trimmer

    This trimmer adds to the damage your bot does and to its health. The effect lasts for 10 minutes, but it locks Mechanical Engineering for 60 minutes. It can be useful in a tight spot due to the immediate healing it does.
    To make it combine Smelly Liquid, found minibosses in alien ships and in apf, with Trimmer Casing from Mechanical Engineering Components. The result is

    Note that it can only be done up to ql244 since the casing can only be found up to ql220.

    8.3. NCU Upgrades

    Android NCU Upgrades provide additional NCU space for your bot, 110 more NCU at QL200. These do not come without a price though, each upgrade lowers the Armour on your bot (400 AC with a QL200 upgrade).

    For the most part these NCU Upgrades are unnecessary as the bots generally have enough room for you to run a reflect shield, damage shield, AC buff and an Attack Rating buff. However you may want a keep a few handy if you really need them, especially since they drop fairly regularly in missions.

    The lower Quality NCU upgrades tend to be more useful than the higher level ones as you're unlikely to need 110 more NCU on a robot.

    9. Implants

    First of all, implants are essential to your character, all the Nano Programs and weapons in the game assume you have them to a greater or lesser extent.

    A good implant set can make the difference between you being very happy with your character or having problems with your character.

    Throughout this section I'm going to try to avoid stating that you must implant certain things wherever possible. However, some statements like that are inevitable.

    9.1. Profession Specific Pre-made Implants

    You can buy profession specific implants for each profession up to quality level 100 from the general stores.

    These implants are far from what most of us consider perfect, but they can save you the time and money building your own if you really don't want to until later on.

    It's also worth checking the booths of other professions as sometimes you can make a better set by combining aspects of different professions.

    Please take care if you do use these implants, especially if you're a Nanomage character. The implant set I have suggested below contains heavily implanted Life because as Engineers we don't have all that much, and as mentioned at the beginning out of all breeds Nanomage has the least life.

    This is particularly important if you open a chest with a bomb in it. If you don't implant life and are Nanomage you will most likely be killed by any such bomb.

    Eventually of course you'll have to build your own.

    9.2. Implant Design

    Designing implants is one of the most complex parts of the game and takes a long time to get used to, but if you have doubts or are unsure then just ask.

    The first thing you should do when you are considering making your own implants is download Nano Nanny. This small program will really help you out as the number of combinations possible is very very large.

    You should consider which skills you need to increase, of course there will be many conflicts within the implants if you wanted to increase everything so you have to be a little selective.

    For each implant there are 3 slots, Shining, Bright and Faded. Each of these slots provides a different amount of skill increase, Shining provides the most, Faded the least.

    So lets think about which skills are important to us as Engineers and whether or not we'd like to implant them.

    Essential Skills to implant

    Matter Creation - Required to make your bot
    Time and Space - Required to make your bot

    Highly Recommended

    Intelligence - Effects all nano skills
    Matter Metamorphesis - Required for engineer shields
    Max Health - Increases your Hit Points, keeps you alive longer.

    Recommended

    Bio Metamorphesis - Required to heal your bot
    Weapon Skill - Depends on which weapon you choose, but I would suggest implanting the skills above carry higher priority.
    Run Speed - Being able to move faster is just useful, you should have spaces to implant this without conflicting.

    Choices

    Sensory Improvement - I personally don't recommend implanting this because it conflicts with skills I consider more important like Intelligence.
    Psycological Modification - As above.

    As I've said, "Matter Creation" and "Time and Space" are both essential skills, however those use the same spots in the implant set so you have to balance the skills. So as an example you would install Shining "Matter Creation" and Bright and Faded "Time and Space" which balances the increase of those skills.

    It's worth remembering that if all implants are of equal quality level, then:

    Increase from shining = Increase from Bright + Increase from Faded

    Experiment in Nano Nanny, it's free and once you learn the process it makes designing implants for you, or any of your other characters much easier.

    Above everything else I want you to remember that anything I write here isn't set in stone and if you disagree then try your set up.

    9.3. Common Issues

    Ability Requirement on Implants - It's possible to alter the ability requirement on an implant a certain amount. You can see this change with the following example:

    In Nano Nanny next to head implant select the following clusters.

    Shining Time and Space
    Bright Ranged Init
    Faded Sense

    Then build the implant (a function of Nano Nanny to simulate an implant build) at any quality level. Checking the results will reveal it requires Intelligence.

    Repeat this process but this time only with these clusters:

    Shining Time and Space
    Faded Sense

    This time the resulting implant requires Agility.

    Max HP or Body Development? - In general the increase in HP provided by implanting HP directly is greater. There is an exception to this though. The Atrox breed gets more HP per point of Body Development than any of the other breeds, which makes implanting Body Development more beneficial for your character.
    Last edited by -Stage-; Dec 30th, 2010 at 15:19:02. Reason: Fixed more dead links
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  6. #6
    9.4. Sample Implant Design

    This Implant set is purely generic and has no weapon skills implanted (except where the ability requirement needed changing), those depend on your weapon choice and the set will need altering in accordance with that.

    The set itself will require you to have Agility and Stamina raised to wear it, although alterations could be made to change those requirements.

    Head - Shining: Time & Space, Bright: (empty), Faded: Sense
    Chest - Shining: Max Health, Bright: Matter Met, Faded: Strength
    Ear - Shining: (empty), Bright: Concealment, Faded: Intelligence
    Eye - Shining: Aimed Shot, Bright: Intelligence, Faded: Matter Creation
    Left Arm - Shining: (empty), Bright: Strength, Faded: Matter Met
    Right Arm - Shining: Strength, Bright: Chem AC, Faded: Mech Eng
    Left Wrist - Shining: (empty), Bright: Run Speed, Faded: Nano Resist
    Right Wrist - Shining: Run Speed, Bright: Nano Resist, Faded: Fling Shot
    Leg - Shining: Agility, Bright: Stamina, Faded: Max Health
    Left Hand - Shining: (empty), Bright: Trap Disarm, Faded: First Aid
    Right Hand - Shining: Trap Disarm, Bright: Matter Creation, Faded: Treatment
    Waist - Shining: Fire AC, Bright: Max Health, Faded: Stamina
    Feet - Shining: Evade, Bright: Agility, Faded: Duck

    10. Soloing & Teaming

    This is where it all comes together, in this section I'm going to give a few pointers and suggestions to make everything that we've done up to now work.

    At this point I will assume that anyone reading this section is new to the game and operating with the normal engineer set up. So some of this section may not be relevant.

    10.1. Terms & Concepts

    Before I go ahead and start suggesting things to try I'll just quickly run through some of the terms and concepts we'll be going through.
    • Mobs - Short for Mobiles, can be any creature in the game not controlled by a player.
    • Hate List - A mobs list of enemies in "Must Die!" order.
    • Aggro Slider - The Agg / Def Slider in the stats window.
    • Line of Sight (LOS) - Self explanetory
    • Calms - A nano program that stops a mob fighting and makes it unable to attack unless attacked first. (Orange effect around the target)
    • Mez - Short for Mesmerize, same as calm.
    • Root - A nano program used to fix a mob to the spot, this won't effect its combat abilities. (Light Blue effect around the target)
    • Snare - A nano program used to reduce the run speed of a mob. (Green effect around the target)
    • Blind - A nano program that reduces the attack rating of the target (Black Cloud effect around the head of the target)
    • Tank - The primary damage taker in any situation, a successful tank must be able to hold the mobs attention.
    • Puller - Person responsible for drawing mobs towards a team, or for the splitting of groups of mobs into bit sized chunks.
    • Taunt - A device, nano program or component of a nano program that increases mob hate towards the user.

    10.2. Pets in Combat

    Our robots are, in effect, controlled mobs. This means they are subject to many of the rules and behavioural patterns that govern regular mobs.

    So like a mob your pet will have a Hate List.

    Mobs or Players might be added to the Hate List because:
    • Old Command - You told your bot to attack a mob by mistake or changed your mind.
    • Mob / Player Attacks Bot - Something or someone attacked your bot.
    • Mob / Player Attacks You - Something or someone attacked you.

    Which ever state the bot is in it will build a hate list, even if the bot is standing there in Wait mode it will add attackers to its list.

    If the bot is in Guard mode it will immediately engage the first attacker, in a team situation that's any mob that attacks any member of the team. If in Attack mode it will engage the attacker as soon as it's current target is finished.

    In any other mode it will not act on this list until you give it a command. Then, depending on the command, it will either start to work through it or disregard it entirely.

    If you set your bot to attack mode it will then engage the target you select, followed by each mob on the Hate List.

    You can clear a Hate List at any time by issuing the command "/pet wait".

    The following example should hopefully illustrate this:

    You're in a team consisting of yourself, a Crat, a Doctor and an Enforcer.

    We'll assume that the team is built up of bad and good players. No sterotypes intended, just as examples. This is a very common situation.

    Ahead of you is a big room with 2 mobs in it, and 11 mobs surrounding it all in their little rooms.

    The Enforcer isn't so bright, he prefers the head on method of rushing into a room and hitting things. He has no regard at all for the mobs that are watching his little display, and indeed little regard for the wellfare of the rest of the team.

    He firmly believes that the crat should calm them all and the doc should heal him. If they don't then the fault lies entirely with them.

    Fortunately for the Enforcer both the Doc and the Crat are very good if a little annoyed at the play style of your Enforcer teammate.

    So the fight commences, the Enforcer engages the first mob, you send your bot to attack it. Everything is going fine.

    Then in the age old fashion the cry "ADD!" rings out as 4 of the mobs from surrounding rooms attack a mixture of you, your bot, the Enforcer and the doc. Thankfully the crat manages to swiftly calm these.

    During this your bot has started to build a Hate List. The first being the mob it's currently fighting, it won't switch until that mob is dead. It's also added onto it's hate list all the mobs that just joined the fight and are now calmed.

    The fight ends, everyone is in a bad way and needs to recharge for a moment, but your bot has just moved right onto the next target!

    Rewind...

    You see the adds, wait until they're calmed, then you issue the Wait command to your bot. Then immediately after the attack command to the current target that everyone is fighting.

    You just cleared your bots Hate List, it will finish it's current target and enter Guard mode until other commands are issued.

    The fight ends and everyone recharges. Your bot waits patiently for you to issue another command. While the mobs stand around looking bored.

    Controlling your bot effectively is very important, you generally cannot let it go on an uncontrolled rampage, it'll upset people in a team and may make soloing hard work.

    10.3. Solo Play

    At low to mid levels, engineers are a good profession for this, the bots ability to tank make us able to solo missions well above our level. In effect it is essential that the Engineer and the Bots behave as a small team.

    Every mob in the game uses Hate Lists to determine who should be attacked. The idea is to always be lower down on this list than the bot.

    Reasons you might move up this list include:
    • Damage - If you do more damage than your bot or team members then you might find the mob starts to hit you instead. Unless you want this to happen adjust your "Aggro Slider" so your defenses are favoured over your attacks.
    • Healing - Healing nano programs carry an indirect taunt value, healing a target near the mob, specifically a target the mob is attacking will move you up the "Hate List".
    • First Seen - If the mob sees you before anything else you will automatically be at the top of the "Hate List".
    • Passive Agro - Pets generate passive hate for their owners if the pet owner is not shooting the mob.


    What this means is that what you want to do is first send your attack bot. Let it do a bit of damage, and then send your dog (if you have one) and start attacking, but do moderate damage. Don't use special attacks or damage perks.

    At very low levels the bot won't be able to taunt the mobs, or hold the mobs attention very well on its own. In this situation you can use Line of Sight (LoS) to your advantage. This especially applies when healing. If you remain out of Line of Sight (of the mob) and heal the bot it's unlikely that the mob will switch its attention to you.

    To make the bot collect more hate then you use Trimmers, as well as anything you can do to make the bot hit harder or annoy the mob more. A Damage Shield for example won't do very much extra damage, nor will it really shield you or the bot from much. But casting it on your bot will mean the mob is being annoyed slightly more each time it hits.

    One of the hardest things to do is learning to seperate mobs. If two mobs are in the same room attacking one will immediately catch the attention of the other. The prefered method to deal with this situation is by pulling one mob into another room. You do this by waiting in the mobs room until it flashes up an attacked by message. At which point you have to get to the first room as fast as you can!

    Pulling with a reflect or a damage shield running is much harder, the only way to pull a single mob in that instance is by not letting the mob hit you at all. If the mob you're pulling takes any damage then it will be noticed by the second mob and the effort is wasted. This is a risk, if your bot (or your team members later on) can't pull the aggro from you or heal you then it might be an idea to use the mission door.

    As you level and your skills increase you may want to get the Blind line. Engineer blinds are the most powerful in the game, they reduce the attack rating of the mob to such an extent that they can be incapable of hitting you. All our blinds are in the form of a 20 second area pulse which effects all hostile targets in the area.
    However, if the mob takes even a single point of damage the blind will be broken and the mob back up to full power. Our blinds are also very short range and contain a taunt, so use with care.

    Along with these is a Snare line that pulses out from the bot (every 30 seconds). The snare contains a taunt which improves chances of the mob attacking the bot.

    10.4. Team Play

    Acting as part of a team can be very hard work at times, some teams are better than others.

    As a new player to this game you'll discover many low level characters that are refered to as "Twinks". These characters are normally alternates of higher level characters which have been improved using the resources of that higher level player. Whether that is by getting the best possible implants in, the best possible armour on or any other method of making a character better than average.

    A team of twinks isn't necessarily a good team though, any team needs to be able to work together and communicate. Approaching any scenario with a little care will make the play experience better.

    This is where we come onto team roles.

    Some teams won't bother and will just run through the mission killing everything, looting everything and just hoping that no one dies in the process.

    Other teams will use strategies, which in theory at least, allow them to contend with greater challenges than the first type.

    Some professions are better suited to certain jobs than others.

    Traditionally Enforcers and Soldiers are tank professions, they have taunts and are equipped to take a great deal of damage.

    Fixers can also tank sometimes, but because of their speed they can make very very good pullers.

    If a team is willing to use these kinds of methods then they can very quickly and efficiently clear a mission full of creatures much higher level than themselves.

    Be a little more careful in teams with some of our programs. The snare program the bot has can attract adds and break calms (except single calms made by crats).

    The Blind program and other offensive auras we have also break calms (except single calms made by crats).

    10.5. Offensive and Defensive Auras

    One final thing I want to cover in this section is a bit more of a detailed description of our defensive and offensive auras.

    These auras have two components, the main component (server) runs in your own NCU, this will pulse out every 20 seconds or so the other half of the program (client). The client is the important bit since that's the one that provides the modifiers. You will end up with server and client running in your NCU when you run it, all other members will only have the client side.

    This list contains all our defensive auras, they range in effect from AC auras to Damage increasing auras. You'll only be able to run one at a time.

    Which you use depends on the situation really, the reflect and damage shield auras are only useful if members of the team are using those kinds of shield. The AC aura is one of the most useful in my opinion.

    Damage buff auras aren't used much but you might want to consider them, the highest adds 25 extra damage for a cost of 2 NCU.

    Offensive auras can be very useful. We're the only profession that can debuff certain types of shields, and we possess the most powerful blinds in the game.

    This list contains all our offensive auras. Going to look at these more closely than the defensive auras.

    Please note that all our Offensive auras break calms (except single calms made by crats), and carry a chance to draw in extra mobs to the fight so use them with care.

    10.5.1. Damage Shield Debuff

    This line of auras reduces the damage you take from any damage shield. There are 5 nanos in this line.

    I find these most useful when facing boss mobs with obscene damage shields. It does seem to have some problems landing on occasion, but boss mobs have pretty obscene nano resist.

    However, teams can be very grateful when the 150 damage they've been taking per hit is substantially reduced.

    Disruptive Field Negator -4 Damage
    Disruptive Shielding Negator -14 Damage
    Disruptive Barrier Negator -28 Damage
    Disruptive Retaliatory Negator -44 Damage
    Disruptive Retributive Negator -61 Damage

    10.5.2. Reflect Shield Debuff

    This line reduces the effectiveness of reflect shields, it reduces the percentage of damage reflected, which makes it very powerful against all reflect shield users.

    This includes the Soldier program Total Mirror Shield and the NT program Nullity Sphere.

    Disruptive Field Harmonics -15%
    Disruptive Cocoon Harmonics -22%
    Disruptive Phase Harmonics -36%
    Null Space Disruptor -48%
    Last edited by -Stage-; Dec 30th, 2010 at 15:22:25. Reason: Fixed more dead links
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  7. #7
    10.5.3. Blind (Add All Off Debuff)

    The Blind line is very usefull in many circumstances. This one has a negative Add All Off modifier. Add All Off directly effects Attack Rating. Attack Rating this is the number used to figure out whether something hits, misses or criticals. The blinds simply reduce the Attack Rating value by a very large amount.

    The blinds can be used to completely shut down a mob making it unable to hit you, this doesn't stop it fighting, just makes it miss more often, especially if the target has high evades. Of course on high level mobs the effect is just making the mob do less damage, and many mobs completly resist the effect.

    In effect this line provides us with some basic crowd control, it's not as effective as a calm, but it does give us an option in a difficult situation.

    Blinds are short range and will break on a single point of damage, including damage from your own reflect and damage shields. As most players have a reflect and a damage shield running on them (from the Bioshield perk line or from buffs) this means that in order to keep the blind active on must avoid being hit, which again is easier with higher evades.

    They also break if another offensive program lands on the target, such as a debuff. Note especially that the snare aura that runs on the bot counts as an offensive program, so each time it pulses it might cancel the blind.

    Disruptive Photon Deflector -370
    Disruptive Photon Absorber -640
    Disruptive Photon Devourer -890
    Disruptive Photon Annihilator -1095
    Disruptive Void Projector -1210


    11. Trade Skills

    11.1. Introduction to Trade Skills

    This is probably one of your biggest choices. Engineers really excel in this field, but it's not an easy path. For a start there's a lot to learn, every trade skill process has different rules. But most importantly this will absorb all of your free IP all the way until well into Title Level 6.

    As a result of the IP sink involved in trade skills it's next to impossible to keep more than a couple of these up before level 125.

    You should also remember that there is no such thing as a Trade skill only engineer, you have a choice of pure Combat Engineer or a Hybrid Trade skill / Combat skill Engineer. This is because you can't level off trade skills, the only way to level is through combat.

    A comprehensive list of items for trade skills has already been created and compiled by Caddock which can be found here.

    11.2. Trade Skill Processes

    Trade skill abreviations:

    Mechanical Engineering - ME
    Electrical Engineering - EE
    Quatum Field Tech - QFT
    Weapon Smithing - WS
    Pharma Tech - PT
    Nano Programming - NP
    Computer Literacy - CL
    Psychology - Psychol
    Chemistry - Chem
    Breaking & Entering - B&E
    Quality Level - QL

    11.3. Charging for Trade Skills

    Whether you use them or not Berael maintains a price list for all trade skill processes should you need a guide about what to charge people if you wish to.

    11.4. Special Tools

    There are some items in the game that can only be found in a limited number of places. Most of these aren't a problem as you can always get them later on. However, 5 of these items can only be found easily in Missions at relatively low level.
    • Robot Instruction Discs - These three can only be found as mission loot at the same levels as the discs.
    • Shape Armour - These two can only be found as boss loot (indoor or outdoor) on approximately level 60 bosses.

    11.5. Maximum Skills for each Breed

    If you're making a character specifically for Trade skills then your Breed choice is very important.

    Below are the maximum, unaugmented trade skills for each Breed. Each one assumes you're level 200 and have maxed all abilities.

    Nanomage
    • Mechanical Engineering - 721
    • Electrical Engineering - 721
    • Quantum FT - 727
    • Weapon Smithing - 721
    • Nano Programming - 727
    • Compter Literacy - 727
    • Chemistry - 719
    • Pharma Tech - 665
    • Psychology - 663
    • Tutoring - 726

    Opifex
    • Mechanical Engineering - 725
    • Electrical Engineering - 722
    • Quantum FT - 713
    • Weapon Smithing - 715
    • Nano Programming - 715
    • Compter Literacy - 715
    • Chemistry - 717
    • Pharma Tech - 669
    • Psychology - 661
    • Tutoring - 717

    Solitus
    • Mechanical Engineering - 719
    • Electrical Engineering - 719
    • Quantum FT - 719
    • Weapon Smithing - 718
    • Nano Programming - 719
    • Compter Literacy - 719
    • Chemistry - 719
    • Pharma Tech - 659
    • Psychology - 659
    • Tutoring - 719

    Atrox
    • Mechanical Engineering - 709
    • Electrical Engineering - 711
    • Quantum FT - 699
    • Weapon Smithing - 713
    • Nano Programming - 699
    • Compter Literacy - 699
    • Chemistry - 713
    • Pharma Tech - 643
    • Psychology - 639
    • Tutoring - 699
    Last edited by -Stage-; Dec 30th, 2010 at 16:06:44. Reason: Fixed more dead links
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  8. #8
    11.6. Tutoring and Why It's Important

    Tutoring is required to be able to use Tutoring Devices, these are items in the game that allow you to termporarily increase one of your own trade skills.

    The devices start at Quality Level 1 and go all the way up to 200. Providing an increase of up to 50 points.

    That is an increase of 0.25 skill per quality level, but we don't work in bits of numbers, only full numbers. So QL1-7 provide a skill increase of 1 point, QL8 - 12 an increase of 2 points, up until the increase of 50 points with a QL200 device.

    Tutoring is absolutely essential for many high level trade skills, but it takes a long time to make it really useful. Especially since the highest quality devices need 1000 tutoring to use.

    So while you might want tutoring eventually, it's probably little use to you before level 150.

    11.7. Where to find out more

    Tir School of Engineering - An excellent site run by Lyricia.
    Anarchy Arcanum - Another useful site which details trade skills and quests amoung other things.
    Engineer Forum - Don't forget here! Many of us have been doing trade skills a long time now so always ask on the forum itself if you need to.

    12. Player Vs Player

    PvP is usually sectioned into TL2/3/5/7 battles. Sadly, there is little an engineer can look for before TL7, so this section will focus on TL7 PvP, and mostly on the high end, 217+.

    The engineer's class main benefits in PvP are special blockers, reflects and absorb. These all give us a nice defensive stand. This is very important, since unlike mobs, no player will target out pets, as we are much easier to kill. Our offense comes from our pets and our weapons. Sadly, in most situations, except 1v1 arena fights, pets are almost useless, as they can easily be kited, snared, charmed or rooted. They also have severe pathing problems in places like the battlestation. We therefore have to rely on our weapon. The current state of PvP requires an Aimed Shot weapon, and we don't have a natural choice for that. Lucky for us several general choices are available. The end result is that a well played engineer can do pretty well in most situations.

    12.1. Skills
    Defensively, you will want to max Evades, Nano Resist and of course Body Dev.
    Offensively, max Aimed Shot for more AS damage, and the weapon skill of your choice. There is no need to spend more IP into other specials than is required for capping them. Although you will hit slightly better if you do, the difference is minor.
    Ranged init is usually worth maxing so you can play full-def and still hit as fast as possible
    Runspeed is worth maxing, both to run away and to catch up with your opponent.
    Nano init is a bit controversial. We don't use many nanos in fight, and the benefit from getting more than 1200 nano init is quickly reducing.
    First Aid should be as high as needed for QL 275 stims.

    12.2. Weapon Choices
    A good weapons will have high, consistent Aimed Shot hits. Other things to look at are how easy it is to cap 11 second AS, what weapon type it is (for example Shotgun will enable you to use our shotgun perks), and what evade type it checks for, preferably Duck Exp, as it is hardest to get, so you get more crits.
    • Kyr'Ozch Energy Carbine - Type 3: Probably the best AS weapon choice. Very consistent AS, checks for Duck Exp, and does nice normal damage too. On the down side it is only superior to other weapons at ql300, which is hard to equip. Also hard to cap AS (1650 required). Kyr'Ozch Energy Carbine drops from aliens, and Type 3 upgrade drops from Generals/Admirals of city aliens.
    • Enchanted Waterfall Eye Wind Onehander: The main benefit of this weapon is that it is single handed, allowing you to use a PvM weapon on your other hand. It also checks for Duck Exp, and is very easy to cap AS. However, the downside is that AS damage isn't consistent, and requires a very high crit setup to be good. The range is also quite low. Rollable.
    • Hand Crafted Unionist Arbalest: Clan/Neutral only. Very good AS damage, and easy to cap AS, at the price of low PvM damage. Checks for Dodge Ranged. Easy to equip and swap. Rare dyna loot, and quite expensive.
    • Superior Sapphistic Bow: Another bow with good AS damage. Checks for Dodge Ranged. Rollable.
    • Ithaca Ki-8 Snakemaster: The main benefits of this weapon is that it is a Shotgun, and it checks for Duck Exp. Also does not require a lot of IP to use. Down side is that AS damage isn't very high, and requires a very high crit setup. Rollable.
    • Zastaba Velocity SX - Special Forces: A rifle, but still used by some engineers. Main benefit is that AS can be capped easily (1230 req), so can be done with little effort. It also has long range, a nice runspeed buff, and makes the perks form the Champion of Heavy Artillery line possible. Checks for Dodge Ranged. Dyna drop.
    • Dreadloch Combat Remodulator/Dreadloch Remodulator: These weapons are only used to debuff your opponent so someone else can kill him. They do very little damage. The upside is that they always debuff, even if you miss, and the required skill to equip the is Mechanical engineering/Electrical engineering, which is convenient to a tradeskilling engineer. Drops from the Dreadloch camps, guide for omni and clan..


    12.3. Armor Choices
    Your armor choice should generally try to enhance the important skills, as listed in the Skills section, mainly AS and health. Also look for armors with crit decrease. Below are some suggestions. You can find more details on some of the armors in the armor section:


    12.4. Other Equipment
    Same idea as armor. Get as much AS, health and other important skills.


    12.5. Nanos
    In general, nanos for PvP aren't that different from nanos for PvM. I'll mention just a few which are specifically important.


    12.6. Perks


    12.7. Tactics
    Tactics are something you have to develop for yourself, it takes lots of practice and a great deal of game knowledge to be good at PvP.
    In general our tactics are quite simple. Send pets, AS, hope for the best. These are just some extra general points that you have to keep in mind.

    12.7.1 Rooting
    As our weapons are ranged, and our pets' pathing is bad, rooting your opponent is very beneficial, at least for the time it takes the bot to get there. Use Hacked Boosted-Graft: Feet of Stone[/i] and Hacked Boosted Graft: Detain Suspect to root your enemy.

    12.7.2 Fighting Against Charms/Calms/Roots
    Sadly, there isn't much you can do against charms and calms, and roots are also a major nuisance.
    Against charms (Crats), you better not even bring your pet, as it will be used against you.
    Calmers (NT, Trader) will calm your pet for a long time and make is useless. Calms can be broken using Trimmer - Divert Energy to Avoidance or one of the Damage Modifier trimmers but this can only be done once every 5 minutes/1 hour respectively, and they can be recalmed almost instantly.
    Against roots (Fixer) use Energized Casing of the Faithful Servant. But casting roots is much quicker than casting these, especially area roots that will root you too.

    12.7.3 Battleship Point Capture
    This is actually the one thing we are the best at. Rename your pets the same as you are to confuse rooters/nukers. Consider using Slayerdroid Transference and using a Slayerdroid shaped pet, to further the confusion. Cast Special blockers and reflects and get a runspeed buff. Click Might of the Revenant/Barrow Strength for root resistance, and run. Only hit cocoon once you are close to the capture point.

    13. Anything Else

    13.1. Making References & Tracking Damage

    If you find you do a lot of trade skill work a reference is really useful for compacting a lot of information into a small space so check out this for Ref Maker.

    You'll also find Damage Dumper on the same site, that program allows you to track the damage of you and anyone else you set it to. Useful if you're curious about how much damage you're doing compared to others.
    Last edited by -Stage-; Dec 30th, 2010 at 16:20:41. Reason: Fixed more dead links, couple other edits
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  9. #9
    To do list:
    • Edit the recommended skills list, based on the recommended skill interface introduced in 16.3
    • Add more about the role of engineer in team and in NW wars, maybe this
    • Add a section about token boards, and how to get tokens.
    • Discuss flags like this.
    • symbs vs. imps
    • Add details about Skill Reseting after 17.3


    History:
    June 10th 2007
    Added subsection 12.3: Armor choices to the PvP section.

    April 6th 2007
    • Rewrote Section 12 PvP
    • Added Dreadloch weapons/items.


    February 12th 2007
    • Rewrote Section 5.5.3. Where to get the Nanos
    • Rewrote Section 3. Controling Your Pets


    January 4th 2007
    • Rewrote the weapon section
    • Added Penultimate Ofab Engineer armor
    • Added section 3.5 about pet runspeed

    December 10th 2006
    • Finished the armor section
    • Removed redundant section: - 13.2. Where to find parts for the Engineer Pistol

    December 3rd 2006
    • Rewrote the armor section

    October 22nd 2006
    • Added AI Trimmers, and the location of all trimmers.

    September 26th 2006:
    • First version of MkIII, mainly cut & paste of MkII.
    • Breed choice section (1.) was replaced by a reference to a thread on the subject.
    • Removed the bugged bots section (5.7.5), as the issue has been solved.
    Last edited by muha; Jun 10th, 2007 at 07:52:06.
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  10. #10
    Empty post for future additions.
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  11. #11
    This thread is now open for comments, from as small as fixing spelling mistakes, through suggestions on what should be added/fixed, to rewrites of whole sections.
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  12. #12

    Thumbs up

    Grats! It seems to be huge re-work as everyone can see that not only AI trimmers missing but as I have briefly came through guide it seems that all AI stuff is not included and SL stuff was just marginally touched...

    Some first remarks:

    "You are allowed to reset one perk point every 72 hours." -> 24hours
    It would be helpful to incorporate which buffs stacks in order to know maximum possible buffing of the skill -> nice information about that is here -> http://aowiki.net/Who_buffs_what

  13. #13
    Does the Clicksaver link in this post work?
    [[ RYUAHN | 220/21 Opifex Trader
    == Proud Member of Core ==
    [[ ALASTROPHE | 220/15 Solitus Martial-Artist

    Quote Originally Posted by Raggy View Post
    There is literally nothing wrong with {Shutdown Skills} in it's current incarnation. What should be being looked at is the reason why it's needed so much. E.g, the incredible amount of Alpha being thrown around and the fickleness of Evade profs.
    Quote Originally Posted by Cratertina View Post
    I walk in to BS... could not perk people... with 3704 AR and 300 AAD drain... NT facerolled me, shade instagibbed me, after a few minutes I just decided not gonna bother.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Philty View Post
    "You are allowed to reset one perk point every 72 hours." -> 24hours
    Thanks, fixed
    Quote Originally Posted by Philty View Post
    It would be helpful to incorporate which buffs stacks in order to know maximum possible buffing of the skill -> nice information about that is here -> http://aowiki.net/Who_buffs_what
    Can you be more specific as to what section you are referring to?
    Quote Originally Posted by Saetos View Post
    Does the Clicksaver link in this post work?
    Thanks, fixed
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  15. #15
    Under pistols, (and this is only a thought, not necessary) Kyr'Ozch Pistol - Type 1 / Kyr'Ozch Pistol - Type 4 can be displayed if need be.

    Thanks Muha on taking the opportunity to tinker with this guide like only us engis can do

    <takes a screwdriver, creates a slayerdroid, and orders him to get me a sandwich>
    [[ RYUAHN | 220/21 Opifex Trader
    == Proud Member of Core ==
    [[ ALASTROPHE | 220/15 Solitus Martial-Artist

    Quote Originally Posted by Raggy View Post
    There is literally nothing wrong with {Shutdown Skills} in it's current incarnation. What should be being looked at is the reason why it's needed so much. E.g, the incredible amount of Alpha being thrown around and the fickleness of Evade profs.
    Quote Originally Posted by Cratertina View Post
    I walk in to BS... could not perk people... with 3704 AR and 300 AAD drain... NT facerolled me, shade instagibbed me, after a few minutes I just decided not gonna bother.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Saetos View Post
    Under pistols, (and this is only a thought, not necessary) Kyr'Ozch Pistol - Type 1 / Kyr'Ozch Pistol - Type 4 can be displayed if need be.
    Added to To Do List.
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by muha View Post
    Thanks, fixed

    Can you be more specific as to what section you are referring to?

    Thanks, fixed
    The point is that in the aowiki guide there are also stated nanolines of buffs and from that you can see which buffs stacks and which do not.

    More specifically:
    Name of boost - Profession who casts it - modifier (NCU cost) 'Nanoline:XXX'
    Note that two buffs that have the same nanoline cannot stack.

    Example:

    Stamina

    * Essence of <...> - Enforcer - From +5 to +27 (5-47 NCU) Nanoline:151
    * Iron Circle - Doctor - +20 (26 NCU) Nanoline:156
    * Enlarge - Doctor - +10 (12 NCU) Nanoline:156

    However there are not all buffs as TS ones, but i think all buffs in guide can hold the information about nanoline and from that can be seen if they are stackable...

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by muha View Post
    <snip>
    So at every step the following three are essential for us:

    Intelligence - Effects all nano skills, most trade skills
    Matter Creation - Bot Creation
    Time and Space - Bot Creation
    Computer Literacy - NCU, Belts & Grid
    Matter Metamorphesis - Shields
    Treatment - Med kits, nano kits, implants
    Body Development - This increases your Hit points
    Nano Pool - Increases your Nano points

    </snip>
    Count again please. ^^ I count 8, not 3...
    Also, nano pool is only important if you lack nano to cast a bigger bot. Which means that troxes have to max it a lot longer than nanomages. Well, nano pool is cheap, can't do anything wrong by just maxing it every time, but I wouldn't say it can compare in importance to the others you listed.

    Also, with our utter lack of healing, I found and find myself using stims a lot when soloing. Nano for others (team), HP for me (solo). And with our dark blue body dev, a stim from maxed first aid fills up a little nanomage engie, easily. Depending on playstyle, I would add that to the important skills, or at least to the secondary ones.
    Last edited by Luuv; Sep 26th, 2006 at 14:46:26.
    Luuv lvl220/19/67 NM engie equip
    Spamheal lvl205/23 NM doc equip
    You might not believe it possible, but not all my toons are in my signature! *gasp*
    And yes, I always edit my posts.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Philty View Post
    The point is that in the aowiki guide there are also stated nanolines of buffs and from that you can see which buffs stacks and which do not.

    More specifically:
    Name of boost - Profession who casts it - modifier (NCU cost) 'Nanoline:XXX'
    Note that two buffs that have the same nanoline cannot stack.

    Example:

    Stamina

    * Essence of <...> - Enforcer - From +5 to +27 (5-47 NCU) Nanoline:151
    * Iron Circle - Doctor - +20 (26 NCU) Nanoline:156
    * Enlarge - Doctor - +10 (12 NCU) Nanoline:156

    However there are not all buffs as TS ones, but i think all buffs in guide can hold the information about nanoline and from that can be seen if they are stackable...
    You will have to excuse me, but I looked again, and I just couldn't see where this is relevant. The only buffs which are mentioned and do not stack are Proficiency/Expertise and Knowledge/Mastery ones, so I added a comment in that area that this nanos do not stack. If you find another place where this is relevant please let me know.
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Luuv View Post
    Count again please. ^^ I count 8, not 3...
    Also, nano pool is only important if you lack nano to cast a bigger bot. Which means that troxes have to max it a lot longer than nanomages. Well, nano pool is cheap, can't do anything wrong by just maxing it every time, but I wouldn't say it can compare in importance to the others you listed.

    Also, with our utter lack of healing, I found and find myself using stims a lot when soloing. Nano for others (team), HP for me (solo). And with our dark blue body dev, a stim from maxed first aid fills up a little nanomage engie, easily. Depending on playstyle, I would add that to the important skills, or at least to the secondary ones.
    I agree that this section needs to be rewritten, and in fact I already rewrote it in a sense. You might have noticed that 16.3 brought a recommended setting for skills. This was done based on lists the professionals made. I'll just need to find the time to copy my recomendations to this guide too.
    In other words, I'll add this to the To Do list
    RK1:220/30 Alicia "Muhandes" Jolt General of Destiny. My setup/A quick screenshot
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guides": 210 symbs before 170, 220 symbs before 180, NM Engi Twinking 205, 210, 215, 220.
    WTB ql150 weapons, Grand Armbands, Eye of the Evening Star.

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